Category: A4architect

http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/03/pf/states_currencies/index.htm

States seek currencies made of silver and gold
By Blake Ellis @CNNMoney February 3, 2012: 10:53 AM ET

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Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, more than a dozen states have proposed using their own alternative currencies of silver and gold.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — A growing number of states are seeking shiny new currencies made of silver and gold.

Worried that the Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar are on the brink of collapse, lawmakers from 13 states, including Minnesota, Tennessee, Iowa, South Carolina and Georgia, are seeking approval from their state governments to either issue their own alternative currency or explore it as an option. Just three years ago, only three states had similar proposals in place.

“In the event of hyperinflation, depression, or other economic calamity related to the breakdown of the Federal Reserve System … the State’s governmental finances and private economy will be thrown into chaos,” said North Carolina Republican Representative Glen Bradley in a currency bill he introduced last year.

Unlike individual communities, which are allowed to create their own currency — as long as it is easily distinguishable from U.S. dollars — the Constitution bans states from printing their own paper money or issuing their own currency. But it allows the states to make “gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

To the state legislators who are proposing state-issued currencies, that means gold and silver are fair game, said Edwin Vieira, an alternative currency proponent and attorney specializing in Constitutional law. And since gold has grown exponentially more valuable, while the U.S. dollar continues to lose ground, the notion has become increasingly appealing to state lawmakers, he said.

The state gold rush: Utah became the first state to introduce its own alternative currency when Governor Gary Herbert signed a bill into law last March that recognized gold and silver coins issued by the U.S. Mint as an acceptable form of payment. Under the law, the coins — which include American Gold and Silver Eagles — are treated the same as U.S. dollars for tax purposes, eliminating capital gains taxes.

Since the face value of some U.S.-minted gold and silver coins — like the one-ounce, $50 American Gold Eagle coin — is so much less than the metal value (one ounce of gold is now worth more than $1,700), the new law allows the coins to be exchanged at their market value, based on weight and fineness.
Local currencies: In the U.S., we don’t trust

“A Utah citizen, for example, could contract with another to sell his car for 10 one-ounce gold coins (approximately $17,000), or an independent contractor could arrange to be compensated in gold coins,” said Rich Danker, a project director at the American Principles Project, a conservative public policy group in Washington, D.C.

South Carolina Republican Representative Mike Pitts proposed a currency system that would allow people to use any kind of silver or gold coin — whether it’s a Philippine Peso or a South African Krugerrand — based on weight and fineness. Pitts said in the bill, which currently has 12 co-sponsors, that the state is facing “an economic crisis of severe magnitude.”

Republican representatives from Washington State followed suit in January, introducing a bill that would also allow any gold and silver coins to be considered legal tender based on metal values. Minnesota, Iowa, Georgia, Idaho and Indiana are also considering similar proposals.

Many of the bills would make it possible for residents to exchange the physical coins for goods and services, so you could use coins to buy anything from groceries to a car as long as the store chooses to accept them.

However, most people aren’t going to walk around with such valuable coins in their pockets, said Vieira. Plus, calculating the value of the coins — especially if they come from different parts of the globe and are of different sizes and shapes — will get tricky.

It’s more likely that the states will create electronic depositories and accounts for the coins to make transactions easier, when and if the initial bills are passed, he said.

Utah Gold & Silver Depository is already developing a system where customers could use debit cards linked to their gold holdings. When customers swipe their debit cards to make transactions, physical gold and silver coins would be transferred between accounts in privately-owned depositories (or vaults) based on the market value of the metals.

Before deciding on a specific form of currency, some states — including Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina — are considering proposals that would first require a committee to review their alternative currency plan.

The future of U.S. currency: The states’ proposals have been gaining steam among Tea Partyers and Republicans, many of whom also endorse a nationwide return to the gold standard, which would require the U.S. dollar to be backed by gold reserves.

Tea Party “father” Ron Paul is sponsoring the “Free Competition in Currency Act,” which would allow states to introduce their own currencies, and rival Newt Gingrich is calling for a commission to look at how the country can get back to the gold standard.

But it will be the individual states that could really get the ball rolling, said Vieira. Even if several of the current proposals get killed, the introduction of so many bills at the state level is drawing national attention to the issue, he said.
Funny money: 11 local currencies

Of all the state proposals circulating right now, Republican-controlled states including South Carolina, Georgia, Idaho and Indiana have the best chance of passing their proposed bills this year, said American Principles Project’s Danker. If just one or two states implement an alternative currency, it could have a Domino effect, he said.

“I think we could get a couple passed in this legislative session, and that would show this is mainstream, popular and it would be a justification for more of the risk-averse states for doing this,” he said.

There are, of course, many people who think the recent push for alternative state currencies should be stopped in its tracks. David Parsley, a professor of economics and finance at Vanderbilt University, said he thinks state-issued currencies are a “terrible” idea.

“Having 50 Feds” could debase the U.S. dollar and even potentially lead the country into default, he said. “The single currency in the United States is working just fine,” said Parsley. “I have no idea why anyone would want to destroy something so successful — unless they actually wanted to destroy the country.”
First Published: February 3, 2012: 5:07 AM ET

The Implications of Currency Devaluation

Anthony Davies

© 1998, Cline & Davies Research Alliance

For a currency to be devalued means that the issuing government has mandated that the price of the currency (in foreign dollars) is lower than it was before. For example: if the Russian government changes the exchange rate from 100 rubles = $1 to 150 rubles = $1, then the ruble has been devalued. Now, regardless of whether a country has a fixed or flexible exchange rate system, there exists a “true” (we say “equilibrium”) exchange rate. The equilibrium exchange rate is the exchange rate at which everyone who wants to sell the currency can find a buyer and everyone who wants to buy the currency can find a seller. By definition, a flexible exchange rate is the equilibrium exchange rate. This is not the case with a fixed exchange rate.

Consider the following analogy. The equilibrium price of a car is $10,000. If the government imposes no restrictions on car prices (i.e. car prices are flexible), then the free market price of a car will be $10,000. Further, there will be no surplus or shortage of cars — everyone who wants to buy a car (at $10,000) will find one to buy, and everyone who wants to sell a car (at $10,000) will find a customer. Now, suppose the government imposes a price floor on cars of $15,000. At the official price of $15,000, many people will want to sell cars, but few people will want to buy cars – there will be a surplus of cars. If the government wants to avoid ending up hip-deep in unsold cars, it will have to buy the extras itself. (Note: this is precisely what the government does in the case of farm subsidies.)

In the case of a fixed exchange rate, the Russian government declares that the official price of 100 rubles is $1. Suppose, however, that the equilibrium price of 100 rubles is $0.75. That is, people would be willing to trade 100 rubles for $1, but the government only allows trades of 100 rubles for $0.75. At the official price of 100 rubles to $0.75, many people will want to sell rubles (sellers receive $0.25 more than the equilibrium price), but few will want to buy rubles (buyers must pay $0.25 more than the equilibrium price). The result is that there will be a surplus of rubles: there are more people willing to sell than there are people willing to buy. As in the car example, if the government wants the market to continue, it must take up the slack. In this case, the Russian government must buy the surplus rubles (at the official price of 100 rubles to $1). How does the Russian government buy rubles? It pays for the rubles on the market with, for example, US dollars.

So now everything is fine. The official exchange rate is 100 rubles to $1. The Russian government buys up the surplus rubles that the market does not want, and life goes on.

Not so fast. The Russian government is buying these surplus rubles with US dollars. The US dollars are coming out of a stockpile that the Russian central bank has built up. What happens when the Russian central bank starts to run out of dollars? When the Russian central bank starts to run out of dollars, it becomes harder for it to buy up the surplus rubles. If the central bank loses the ability to buy up surplus rubles, then it becomes powerless to enforce its fixed exchange rate. The Russian government now has three options: (1) revert to a flexible exchange rate (which would cause the price of rubles to immediately fall to 100 rubles to $0.75), or (2) suspend trading in rubles (which is what the government did first), or (3) devalue the ruble so that the fixed exchange rate is closer to the equilibrium exchange rate (which is what the government did next). Note that option 3 does not solve the problem, but it does buy some time, while option 2 results in the formation of black markets in which the price of the ruble will fall more than it would were the government to revert to a flexible exchange rate.

What is the effect of having a fixed exchange rate which is greater than the equilibrium exchange rate? It makes it less expensive for Russians to buy foreign goods (so Russian imports are greater than they would otherwise be). It also makes it more expensive for foreigners to buy Russian goods (so Russian exports are less than they would otherwise be). Because GDP rises when exports rise and falls when imports rise, having a fixed exchange rate which is greater than the equilibrium exchange rate is bad for the economy. So, maybe devaluing the ruble is a good thing — if the ruble is devalued to, say, 100 rubles = $0.75 then (1) the Russian central bank no longer has to buy up surplus rubles (because there won’t be any surplus), (2) Russian exports rise (because Russian goods are now cheaper for foreigners), (3) Russian imports fall (because foreign goods are now more expensive for Russians). According to this formula, Russia should be on its way to a burgeoning economy.

Not so fast. Many foreigners have purchased Russian bonds. These bonds are IOU’s that state that the Russian government promises to pay a certain amount of rubles to the holders of the bonds at some fixed date in the future. Suppose you are the IMF. Six months ago, you purchased 100 billion rubles worth of Russian bonds. At the fixed exchange rate of 100 rubles to $1, you paid $1 billion for the bonds. Let us say that the bonds yield 10% interest and come due tomorrow. You will have earned 5% on the loan. So tomorrow, you will receive a check for $1.05 billion, right. Nope. Those bonds were denominated in rubles. You will receive back your 100 billion rubles plus 5%, or 105 billion rubles. BUT, now that the government has devalued the ruble, those rubles trade not at 100 rubles to $1, but at 100 rubles to $0.75. The 105 billion rubles you receive tomorrow are worth $787 million and change. Because of the devaluing of the ruble, you just lost almost a quarter of a billion dollars — and that is after accounting for the interest you earned. Thus, for the Russian government to devalue the ruble is tantamount to its defaulting on a portion of its debt.

Our story is not yet over. Combine all of the above with the fact that the Russian government has been ineffective in collecting taxes. Because it is ineffective in collecting taxes, the government does not have enough rubles to either pay off the debt it owes on its bonds or to purchase the products it requires to continue operating as a government. While the Russian government can devalue the ruble so as to eliminate some of the debt it owes, devaluation is not a panacea because: (1) the more the government devalues the ruble, the lower the probability that it will get another loan from a foreign government in the foreseeable future, (2) devaluing the ruble relieves the pressure of having to pay back debt, but it does not provide rubles for future purchases. In order to obtain rubles for future purchases, the government (absent tax revenue) has no choice but to “print” rubles. So, the government prints the rubles and buys the products it needs to stay in business as a government.

Not so fast. The average prices of products in a country is (roughly speaking) the ratio of the quantity of currency in the country to the quantity of products produced in the country. When the Russian government prints rubles, it increases the quantity of rubles without changing the quantity of Russian products produced. The result is that prices go up by the same percentage as does the money supply. But, because prices will rise only after the economy is aware that the government has expanded the money supply, if the government is quick to print and spend the new money, it will be able to buy what it needs with the new rubles before inflation reduces their value. Like a game of hot-potato, those who pay for the government’s purchase of product with “printed money” are the people who are holding rubles when the inflation hits.

To summarize: the current economic crisis in Russia is caused by a combination of factors. The government has been ineffective in collecting taxes which means that the government has to print money to buy what it needs. In an effort to escape the effects of the nearly world-wide economic collapse, investors want to buy strong currencies (like the dollar) and to sell weaker currencies (like the ruble). The flight to dollars causes the equilibrium exchange rate of the ruble to fall. The Russian central bank finds itself forced to sell off almost all of its stock of dollars in an attempt to support a now untenable fixed exchange rate. As the Russian government runs out of money to buy what it needs and the Russian central bank runs out of dollars to support the fixed exchange rate, two things are done: (1) the Russian government prints rubles (causing massive internal inflation), (2) the Russian central bank devalues the ruble (effectively causing the Russian government to default on its loans).

How could this disaster have been averted? One suggestion (which some economists have been advocating for over a year now) is to encourage the IMF not to bail out Russia. Economic forces are like the tides: if you are delusional, you might be convinced that you can stop them; if you are smart, you’ll realize that you can’t and do the best you can not to get dragged out to sea. Had the IMF refused Russia the loans it requested a year ago, Russia would have been forced to do the sort of thing it has recently done: devalue the ruble and print money. The difference is that the devaluing would have occurred when the Russian debt was much smaller than it is now, and the printing of money would have occurred when Russian prices were lower than they are now. In attempting to hold back the tide, we may have ensured that Russia, instead of starting the long trek for high ground while the water was still low, has a firm foothold on the beach just in time to be swamped by a tidal wave of economic collapse.

Return to Cline & Davies Research Alliance

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/clinedavies/essay1.html

SECTIONAL LAND OWNERSHIP AND SALE.

Land prices in Kenyan urban areas are on the rise. To enable Kenyans acquire land ownership within the high land prices, www.a4architect.com has developed the Sectional land ownership method whereby the minimum sub divisible land, 1/8^th acre can be shared by 2,3 or 4 people hence more accessible.

How a 1/8^th acre plot is currently Shared between 2,3 or 4 people.

Sharing a 1/8^th acre land between 2,3 or 4 people occurs commonly around Nairobi. New housing estates usually sell housing units which sit within a 1/8^th acre divided between 2, 3 or 4 houses.

For example, 100% sold-out housing estates such as Akila-Langata road, Tamarind Meadows, Mombasa road, 360 Apartments, Syokimau all sit on less than a 1/8^th acre shared land.

Therefore, the possibility of 2 ,3 or 4 people sharing a 1/8^th acre  is currently being used.

The architectural design and the Local Authority byelaws within a particular area serves as the limitation to the number of housing units that can fit within the 1/8^th acre plot.

How it works.

1. 2,3 or 4 people will come together and agree to share a 1/8^th acre plot after viewing a 1/8^th acre plot listing for sale.
2. The 2,3 or 4 people will procure the master plan from ww.a4architect.com on how the units will be arranged within the plot . The master plan will then be submitted to the relevant Local Authority for approval, marking the legal basis for the 2,3 or 4 people to share the 1/8^th acre plot.

Fees for the Master Plan will be shared by the 2,3 or 4 partners as below:

Options to Choose from|	Total fees.	2 partners:each partner contribution|KES	3 partners:each partner contribution|KES	4 partners:each partner contribution|KES
Architectural   fee |a4architect submits application and follows it up till approval.	80,000	40,000	26,667	20,000
Architectural fee|Partial|Owners submit application to council.	40,000	20,000	13,333	10,000

 

3. The 2,3 or 4 people will register a Limited Liability Company to buy the 1/8^th acre plot. The architectural master plan will describe each particular ownership similar to the current Sectional Properties Act description within the Articles of Association. The company will then buy the land and each partner can go ahead to construct their house as per the approved architectural plans within the regulations set out in the Articles of Association.

 

 

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.

 

www.a4architect.com

info@a4architect.com

+254721410684

 

Easiest method to own land and property in Kenya.

Sectional land ownership.

Land prices are on the rise in Kenya. An eight of an acre in parts of Kitengela, Ongata Rongai and Syokimau is now selling at KES 1.5m.

This price has put many Kenyans off from acquiring such property. Sectional ownership of land comes in to offer solutions.

Land size.

An eight of an acre if well designed can accommodate 2 or 3 houses within it.

Many housing estates along Mombasa road Mlolongo area offer houses for sale which sit on let than  a sixteenth of an acre. These sell for KES 7 to KES 10m per unit.

Other housing estates are selling units on flats. Units above the ground floor can not access the ground space hence have zero compound. Such units sell fro a minimum of KES 4m and are on high demand.

This clearly shows that location is more important than outdoor compound space.

When an eighth of an acre is shared between 2 or 3 houses, the compound space is approximately equal to the space offered within the numerous housing estates on sale around Nairobi for millions of shillings.

Eighth acre dimensions.

Most plot dimensions for an eighth of an acre plots are not exactly the same. The average size of the eighth acre plots is 50 feet by 100 feet.  In actual size, the plots exact dimensions will differ slightly e.g.  can be 49 feet by 101 feet .

Boundary demarcations.

When sharing the eighth acre plot between 2 to 3 people, the slight difference is very crucial since the spaces are tight. If a neighbor erroneously encroaches into the other by a few feet, the other house will be too squeezed for comfort. If a neighbor encroaches into another neighbor by a few feet, services such as septic tank and car parking might not fit.

To ensure such incidences do not arise, the architectural design that includes the master plan on how all the 2 or 3 houses shall fit within the plot becomes a very useful tool. The design is optimized to ensure the best use of space so that all the 2 or 3 houses fit well and make use of the available space to the maximum.

Disputes.

In other plots larger than eighth of an acre, the plot boundaries are fixed using the survey plans. Disputes are resolved through the survey plan documentations held within the Ministry of Lands.

In sectional ownership of land, the boundary disputes will be resolved using the approved architectural plan that describes the boundary extent of the 2 or 3 owners.

How it works.

• 2 or 3 people identify an eighth acre for sale and agree to share the ownership . Each person can post a request for partnership at http://www.a4architect.com/discuss/buy-a-section-of-land/ .

 

• The 2 or 3 people consult www.a4architect.com for the master plan layout that demarcates the boundaries of the eight acre .  The 2 or 3 people can either come physically to www.a4architect.com offices or send the deed plan or survey plan to www.a4rchitect.com by email.
• www.a4architect.com prepares the architectural design comprising of 2 or 3 houses  that can be taken for approval within the relevant Local Authority. This can be emailed to the 2 or 3 people or obtained physically by visiting the a4arcitect offices.

 

• Payments for the architectural design are charged as per below breakdown. Payments can be through cash, cheque or Mpesa. The 2 or 3 people can either choose to apply for approvals from the Local Authority or have www.a4rchitect.com apply and follow up the approval process on their behalf.

	Options to Choose from|	Total fees.	2 partners:each partner contribution|KES	3 partners:each partner contribution|KES
Option 1	Architectural   fee |a4architect submits aplication and follows it up till approval.	80,000	40,000	26,667
Option 2	Architectural fee|Partial|Owners submit application to council.	40,000	20,000	13,333

 

 

 

• The 2 of 3 people can now register a Limited Liability company that buys the land and within the company articles of association, describe how to share the property as per the architectural drawings that describe how each will build his property and what extent his portion will be.
  • They can then buy the land, use the approved plans as legal documentation to demarcate their boundaries and construct their 2 or 3 homes as per the Local Authority approval specifications.

 

Architect Francis Gichuhi kamau.

www.a4architect.com

info@a4architect.com

0721410684

HOW TO EVADE HIGH LAND PRICE IN KENYA.

Kenya’s total land size is 582,650 sq km. This translates to   143,975,950.00 acres.

Of this land, 50% is agricultural i.e. can be farmed upon or used as pasture for grazing. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/kenya/arable-land-hectares-wb-data.html

Assuming that this 50% of agricultural land, 71,987,975.00 acres is owned by 20% of the population, mainly Government bodies and individuals, we remain with    35,993,987.50 Acres.

80% of Kenyan population shares the 35,993,987.50 acres. Out of this  35,993,987.50 acres, 50% of this will be roads due to subdivision process, unbuildable areas such as pits, quarries, dams and forests.

Land Shared equally to al Kenyans.

This leaves 7,198,797.50 acres to be shared by 40,000,000 Kenyans. The 7.1million acres shared by 40 million Kenyans bring us to 0.18 acres per person, approximately a 1/8^th acre plot per person.

The population is growing at a rate of 2.4% per year.

This means that the plot sizes have to be lower than 1/8^th acre to accommodate all.

Other options to increase livable space include

• Building several storeys higher to increase the livable area per person.
• Several families living together to increase the number of people within the 1/8^th acre plot.
• Land reforms to provide mechanisms that allow Kenyans to live in the 50% of land in the arid and semi arid areas.
• Land reforms to increase the land available from the minority landlords and large government holdings who own the 80% of agricultural land.

We are currently in an election year. None of the possible presidential candidates have mentioned anything related to increase of available land through the above methods. This means that chances are high that things will remain as they are.

The availability of only a small section of land for sale to majority Kenyans has resulted in very high land prices.

Most of the land that could have been used for housing is held by Government and a few individuals.

Take Nairobi for example.

• KWS owns a large tract of land from Langata till Kitengela.
• Ministry of Forestry owns a  large tract of land from Kibera till Kikuyu-Ngong forest.
• The Catholic Church owns most of the land in Karen.
• The city has occupied a huge chunk in the middle of Nairobi.
• Kenyatta University owns most of the land along Thika road.
• Coffee farms own a lot of land along Thika road.
• JKIA owns thousands of acres along Mombasa road.
• KARI owns a lot of acreage along Waiyaki way.
• Kenya Railways owns thousands of acres in the city and the suburbs.
• Many more individuals own huge chunks of fallow unused lands in Nairobi and its suburbs.

This leaves a small fraction to be cut into 1/8ths for the majority of the population to share.

This has resulted in very high land prices.

Since land is as essential as air in that we can’t live without it, www.a4architect.com has come up with a solution to this-Sectional Land Ownership.

How Sectional land ownership works.

1. 2 or 3 people meet and identify a plot of land 1/8^th acre anywhere within Kenya from here http://www.a4architect.com/discuss/buy-a-section-of-land/

 

2. www.a4architect.com comes up with a master plan architectural design that allows for 2 or 3 houses within the 1/8^th in compliance with building regulations set out within the local authority bye laws.

3. The 2 or 3 people register a company with 2 or 3 shares which enables them to co-own the land and build their dream homes for living in or as rental and sale investment.

 

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.

www.a4architect.com

info@a4architect.com

+254721410684

 

 

 

 

 

SECTIONAL OWNERSHIP OF LAND IN KENYA-BEST METHOD TO CREATE WEALTH.

Wealth in any Nation is created when factors of production, namely, Land, Capital and Labour are used to efficiency.

Sectional ownership of land enables unlocking of land as a factor of production to a majority of the population.

For effective wealth production to take place, energy is needed as a secondary factor of production.

In Summary.

• Primary factors of production that enable creation of wealth are Land,Capital land Labour.
• In Kenya,land price is very high hence a need for the sectional land ownership method to enable acquisition of land hence increase in productivity.This can provide  solutions as a current measure. Other factors of production will require a future intervention.
• The other factors, Capital and Labour and Energy can be acquired in future through employment of critical thought processes.

Energy.

The world receives its energy from the sun. When the sun shines, plant through the process of photosynthesis turn sun’s energy into plant material. This plant material is then consumed by humans and other animals.

After plants and animals die, their deposits form oil over many millions of ears. This oil then drives our economies.

The most efficient method of using the sun’s energy is through solar panels. These have no moveable parts hence less wastage of energy.

By virtue of Africa and Kenya lying within the equator, it receives maximum solar energy compared to other continents.

 

Solar panel manufacturing through the doping of silicon as a semiconductor is expensive. Africa through the poor leverage and representation in the world’s monetary bodies can not access the capital needed to buy the solar panels.

Solution to affordability of Solar panels-THE FUTURE.

The BRICS, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have led the way into ensuring the world’s monetary policies are fair. All world currencies are pegged on the US Dollar. Before the early 1970s, the US dollar was pegged to Gold, hence a logical monetary policy. The current situation has the worlds currency pegged to the US Dollar  without any Gold backing.

Already, the BRICS are in plans to come up with a global bank that rivals the World bank/IMF.

http://www.newkerala.com/news/2011/worldnews-180459.html#.T83Md1JgAf0

 

Already, India and China are in talks with Iran to use Gold for purchase of Iranian oil.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/318404

http://presstv.com/detail/222857.html

It’s only a matter of time before African nations that can be able to marshal superior economic think-tanks also follow suit and start trading their produce based on Gold as opposed to the US Dollar.

Africa  again starts with a head start if the world uptakes Gold as currency. Africa has more Gold deposits than the other continents.

South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya, DRC Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Niger, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Algeria and Zambia have Gold deposits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_gold_production

The use of Gold to enable obtaining of solar panels in Africa will unlock the sun’s energy to enable wealth creation in gigantic proportions.

As mentioned earlier, factors of production i.e. LAND , Capital and Labor to enable wealth creation will be unlocked. The Capital from Gold will enable acquisition of labor in terms of solar power production which will unlock energy to enable investment on land.

Land as a factor of production.

In most countries colonized by the British Empire, land was alienated from the inhabitants and owned by the colonists. After the colonists left in the 1960s, land was left within the hands of a few Africans while a large majority was left landless.

Land is the most important factor of production since without land, labor and capital cannot operate/function. We need land to live in, produce food, and operate industries and transport. Basically, land is utilized for all functions of life.

When a large percentage of Africans are left landless, they pay a very heavy price to the land lord to enable them live. The price is in terms of house rent, farm rent, office rent, and building purchase.

 

Scarcity of Land in Kenya.

By 1922, the British Empire owned ¼ of the earth’s surface.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Empire

http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/april2007/british_empire.html

 

The Arab world,Iraq,Egypt and India gained their independence in the 1920s. East Africa in the 1960s and Zimbabwe in 1980.

The return of land to the Africans by the British Empire was skewed in such a manner that most Africans were left landless.

The few land owners in Kenya have gained excessive wealth through renting and selling the land to the majority population. Since land is like air in that humans cannot exist without it, the demand has become very high. Since it’s controlled by a few , the availability has become very scarce.

Solutions to scarcity of land in Kenya.

 

Methods to rectify this anomaly without civil wars are implementation of Land Value Tax or idle land tax.

This taxes the land owners who keep their lands idle, hence denying other Kenyans an opportunity to use the land to farm or live in.

Since land is not man-made-i.e. it was created by God for all to use, idle land tax will force the owners of land to utilize their lands for farming, residential use, manufacturing and other uses.  In the process, they will increase their wealth while also enabling the majority landless to get job opportunities to increase their wealth, feed and house themselves.

http://www.a4architect.com/2012/04/15/solution-to-kenyas-poverty-and-landlessness-annual-land-value-tax/

THE PRESENT:

Solutions such as idle land taxation will come into play when the will of Kenyan politics will allow. As for now, the only method for Kenyans to utilize the factor of production called land is to share the affordable 1/8^th acre plots  through sectional land ownership.

http://www.a4architect.com/2012/05/04/own-land-in-nairobi-for-as-low-as-kes-54000/

How sectional land ownership works.

In this method, 2 or 3 people identify a 1/8^th acre land for sale.

They approach www.a4architect.com for architectural floor plans that will serve to enable the 2 or 3 people demarcate their boundaries and conform to local authority bye laws.

The 2 or 3 people register a company with 2 or 3 shares.

The company buys the land then they can each build their house and live harmoniously together.

Boundary disputes will be resolved through the architectural plan that forms part of the contract in the articles of association of the company that owns the land title.

This way, a majority of Kenyans will be able to access land as a factor of production. With this, they can easily utilize capital and labor to make more wealth.

With the ability to afford land through sectional method, Kenyans can be able to unlock production. They can afford to live near their work place, commence small scale industries and above all, afford shelter -all these and many more factors eventually create an environment favorable for production hence creation of individual and collective wealth.
All one needs to do is visit http://www.a4architect.com/discuss/buy-a-section-of-land/ then post a request for partnership on a 1/8th land. Describe the area you would like to purchase your land. Another interested person will see this and respond to enable you form the much needed partnership.

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.

www.a4architect.com

+254721410684.

info@a4architect.cvom

Where is gold found on earth?
http://www.gold-traders.co.uk/gold-information/where-is-gold-found-on-earth.asp

Gold can be found on nearly every continent of the earth. It also exists in trace amounts in sea water and in the human body. Despite the fact that gold can be found almost everywhere, there is very little gold in comparison to other elements on earth. In fact, if all the gold ever discovered were collected and melted down and formed into one cube, it would measure just 20 meters on each side.

The largest known deposits of gold appear on two continents, Africa and India. In these two regions, South Africa has the largest concentration of gold with the town of Johannesburg being built over the worlds largest gold deposit. India is home to the worlds second deepest underground gold mine, the Champion Reef Mine, which is located on the Kolar region of India. While the Kolar gold fields have been closed for several years due to diminishing returns on the investment, this area of India is still thought to contain very rich deposits of gold. The Indian nation also takes credit for being the world’s largest consumer of gold and gold products.

As a producer of gold in the last two centuries, the North American continent has become a source that may rival these other continents. With deposits of gold being found in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the North American continent is developing as a gold producing continent.

SECTIONAL OWNERSHIP OF LAND IN KENYA.

OWN LAND FOR AS LOW AS KES 54,000.

Land prices in Kenya are rising at a fast rate annually.

To enable Kenyans take part in investing and acquiring land for home ownership, http://www.a4architect.com/discuss/buy-a-section-of-land/ has come up with the Sectional Ownership method whereby 2 or 3 people can pool resources together to enable them share a 1/8^th acre of land for home ownership or investment purpose.

This method will enable Kenyans to gain from the more than 20% annual land price increase as an investment.

The minimum land subdivision plot is 1/8^th acre in Kenya. The 1/8^th acre plots can be well utilized by 2 or 3 families if they are well-architecturally designed.

For example, the plot size for many estates such as South C,Buruburu is less than 1/8^th acre .

Plot size in Apartment buildings e.g. Lavington, Ngong road is zero . Occupants use the house balconies for tasks carried out outdoors e.g. cloth drying, jiko lighting and basking.

A 1/8^th acre plot when well planned can comfortably accommodate 2 or 3 families.

Legal Ownership.

Since the minimum land title is 1/8^th acre, owning land less than this size is not possible through land title system.

A company is registered which is then owned by the 2 or 3 people interested in owning a section of the 1/8^th acre.

The company will have 2 or 3 shares. Each person will then own 1 share which he can re-sell or transfer to third parties or bequeath to his wife and children as inheritance.

Technical ownership.

To enable ease of sharing without any possibilities of boundary and local authority disputes, www.a4architect.com designs the layout plan that shows the house style to be built and the individual space in relation to the other 2 or 3 owners.

Each local authority has set its own bylaws regarding use of land. For example, in Karen, Kahawa Sukari or Syokimau, only one family can live within the minimum plot size.

Each local authority also sets the set back distances between the building and the neighbouring land and access road.

Each local authority sets the minimum distance between the septic tank and the neighbouring plot size.

These and many other local authority bylaws are incorporated into the design done by www.a4architect.com. This ensures the 2 or 3 owners that their construction will not in any way conflict with the Local Authority bye laws.

For example, a 6m set back from the access road will take a huge chunk from the plot owner whose plot is next to the road. This is resolved through design such that the agreement between the 2 or 3 owners incorporates all the local authority bye laws hence allowing all the owners to construct their houses without any legal or technical hindrance.

Advantages.

This Sectional ownership of land through www.a4architect.com enables people to invest in land for housing purposes or future re-selling from denominations as low as KES 54,000 to a maximum of any amount. See table below.

How it works.

1. Someone identifies land for sale at http://www.a4architect.com/land4sale/ or any other website or physical location.
2. Someone posts a request for sectional owner partner or 2 other partners at http://www.a4architect.com/discuss/buy-a-section-of-land/  after identifying a land for sale that he is interested in.

 

3. www.a4architect.com links the person who has requested for 1 or 2 other partners depending on preferences and carries out design to ascertain whether the specific local authority can allow for 2 or 3 separate housing units within the said land. Interested partners arrange on viewing the site.
4. The 2 or 3 partners meet and form a company with 2 or 3 shares and choose their portions based on the architectural plan. The architectural plan will serve as the ‘beacon’ demarcating the boundaries and will assist in any boundary dispute. The articles of association also come up with modalities on use of shared spaces e.g. gate and driveway.
5. The new company buys the land and the plan is submitted to the local authority for approval.
6. The 2 or 3 partners can now embark on developing their portions each with his own pace. Each partner can re-sell his share in the company or bequeath to his/her kin.

 

Architect Francis Gichuhi Kamau.

www.a4architect.com

+254721410684

2 OWNERS
200K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
200,000.00	135,000.00
400K LAND
Land
400,000.00	250,000.00
100K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
100,000.00	75,000.00
600K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
600,000.00	375,000.00
800K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
800,000.00	500,000.00
1m LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
1,000,000.00	625,000.00
1.5m LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
1,500,000.00	877,500.00
2m LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
2,000,000.00	1,170,000.00
3 OWNERS
200K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
200,000.00	90,000.00
400K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
400,000.00	166,666.67
100K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
100,000.00	54,000.00
600K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
600,000.00	250,000.00
800K LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
800,000.00	333,333.33
1m LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
1,000,000.00	400,000.00
1.5m LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
1,500,000.00	585,000.00
2m LAND
Land	fraction sale Price
2,000,000.00	780,000.00

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ZE2L3_980&w=560&h=315]

America’s Solar Energy Potential
http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/solarenergy.aspx
Every hour, the sun radiates more energy onto the earth than the entire human population uses in one whole year.

The technology required to harness the power of the sun is available now. Solar power alone could provide all of the energy Americans consume — there is no shortage of solar energy. The following paragraphs will give you the information you need to prove this to yourself and others. You do not need advanced math skills to follow and perform the arithmetic examples shown below. Anyone who can balance a checkbook or calculate the total square feet of floor space in his or her home, and understand why an area measuring 10 yards by 10 yards equals 100 square yards, can perform the following arithmetic examples and prove that American energy independence could be achieved with solar energy alone.

Science tells us that every square meter of the earth’s surface, when exposed to direct sunlight, receives about 1000 watts (1 kilowatt) of energy from the sun’s light. Depending on the angle of sunlight, which changes with the time of day, and the geographical location [see map below], the power of the sun’s light will be somewhat more or less than 1 kilowatt-hour per hour for every square meter of the earth’s surface exposed to the sun.

USA solar map On average, and particularly in the Sunbelt regions of the Southwestern United States, every square meter area exposed to direct sunlight will receive about 1 kilowatt-hour per hour of solar energy. However, scientists estimate that sunlight will provide useful solar energy for only about 6 to 7 hours per day because during the early hours and late hours of the day the angle of the sun’s light is too low. So, for example, if the sun’s light provides 6 productive hours of solar energy per day, then a square meter of land in direct sunlight will receive about 6 kilowatt-hours of solar energy during the course of a day.

Scientists like to measure things using the metric system. However, most Americans are unfamiliar with the metric system. (Europeans use the metric system.) It is easier for Americans to think in square feet and square yards because feet and yards are common lengths in the United States. So, for the sake of clarity and because this is written for an American audience, all measurements will be converted from meters to yards.

A meter is just a little longer than a yard (about 3 and ¼ feet to a meter, compared with 3 feet to a yard). There are 10.8 square feet in a square meter. There are 9 square feet in a square yard (3×3=9). A simple calculation can accomplish the conversion from square meters to square yards. A square yard is 83.33 percent of a square meter. Prove this by multiplying 10.8 (the number of square feet in a square meter) by 83.33%. The answer is nine (the number of square feet in a square yard). If you perform the calculation you will see that the answer is slightly less than the whole number 9 (but close enough for our purpose). Using this conversion, we can say that a square yard of land in direct sunlight receives 1000 x 83.33% = 833 watts of solar energy. This calculation can also be used in reverse to convert yards to meters, simply divide by .8333 (833 divided by .8333 = 1000 rounded).

Every square yard of land, if exposed to direct sunlight, receives about 833 watts of solar energy [NOTE: see the map above, and adjust the estimated amount of solar energy accordingly]. Therefore, a one square yard area exposed to continuous direct sunlight [in an optimal geographical location] for six hours will have received 6 hours x 833 watts = 4,998 watt-hours of solar energy during the course of a day. In round numbers, a one square yard area will receive about 5000 watt-hours (5 kilowatt-hours) per day of solar energy. Another way to obtain this result would be to take the 6 kilowatt-hours per meter (explained above in the third paragraph) and apply the conversion calculation (6 x 83.33% = 5 rounded).

Americans can assume, at least in the Sunbelt regions of the southwestern United States, that every square yard of land exposed to direct sunlight will receive about 5 kilowatt-hours per day of solar energy.

With the above information in mind, perform the following exercise: Measure an area ten yards long and ten yards wide. That would be thirty feet by thirty feet. Take a good look at the size of it. You are looking at an area covering 100 square yards. If that area were in direct sunlight all day it would receive about (5 x 100) 500 kilowatt-hours per day of solar energy. Now go look at your home electric bill. Your electric company calculates your home electric bill based on how many kilowatt-hours of electrical energy you use. Find the total amount of electricity that you have been billed for (given in kilowatt-hours). The amount of kilowatt-hours on your bill is for an entire month. If your home is a typical residential electric customer, you and your family consume between 500 and 1000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. Compare the quantity of electric energy your home consumed in one month with the quantity of energy the sun gives freely to a 100 square yard area exposed to direct sunlight. One hundred square yards of sunshine provides as much energy in 1 to 2 days as an average family uses in an entire month!

It would be great if 100% of the sunshine became electricity, but solar energy and electricity are not the same. Technology accomplishes the conversion of solar energy to electricity. Several different technologies are used; perhaps the one that most people have heard of is the solar panel, made from photovoltaic cells called PV.

For a detailed explanation of photovoltaic cells there is a very good article on the Internet located at:
www.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell.htm, it is well written and easy to read.

Conversion of one form of energy to another always causes a loss of energy. In other words, the new form of energy will be less than the original. Efficiency is the word scientists use to describe the difference in power resulting from the conversion of one form of energy to another. The efficiency of commercially available solar panels (PV) is about 15%. This means that when a solar panel converts the sun’s light to electricity, only about 15 percent of the energy in the sunlight becomes electricity. The same thing is true of gasoline in your car. Your car’s engine can only convert about twenty-five percent of the energy in gasoline to mechanical energy that turns the wheels.

With an average efficiency of 15 percent, a square yard of solar photovoltaic cells (PV) would produce (5 kilowatt-hours of solar energy multiplied by 15% =) .75 kilowatt-hours of electric energy per day. Solar panels (PV) covering an area ten yards by ten yards (100 square yards or 900 square feet) would produce 100 x .75 = 75 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day.

Seventy-five kilowatt-hours per day is a lot of electricity for a single-family home. If part of the electricity is stored in a home battery, or is used to electrolyze water for producing hydrogen gas, and the gas is stored for use by a fuel cell when needed, then 100 square yards covered with solar panels would provide an average family with energy independence. Most detached family homes have more than 100 square yards (900 square feet) of roof, or that much space around their homes where solar panels could be installed.

In the Southwest, if you look at any commercial or industrial park, or any typical mall or supermarket you will see that most of the buildings have flat roofs. Those roofs require insulation to lower the cost of air conditioning on hot days. If those roofs where covered with solar panels the sun would provide electricity for the air conditioning and save businesses millions of dollars per month that would otherwise be paid to the utility companies.

Another technology, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP), takes a different approach to harnessing the power of the sun. Unlike photovoltaic cells, CSP uses mirrors to concentrate the sunlight on a focal point, which magnifies the suns heat. Similar to holding a magnifying glass in the sun, focusing the light onto a piece of paper until the paper catches on fire.

CSP technology has more than one form. Troughs, dishes and towers are the different forms available today. A CSP dish or tower looks like a modern glass sculpture and contributes aesthetically to the landscape. CSP systems can achieve 30 percent efficiency, or about twice the efficiency of standard photovoltaic cells (2 x .75 = 1.5 kilowatt-hours per square yard per day).

Large Concentrating Solar Power plants create the thermal energy equivalent to conventional fossil fuel power plants. After the sun sets, CSP plants generate electricity from cost-effective thermal storage, providing 24-hour service to the power grid.

Consider the solar energy potential of one acre of land. There are 43,560 square feet in an acre. Divide the number of square feet in one acre by 9 (the number of square feet in one square yard) and you find that there are 4,840 square yards in one acre of land. A CSP dish, tower, or trough receiving an acre of sunshine would yield about (1.5 kilowatt-hours per square yard times 4,840 square yards per acre) 7,260 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day, at 30% efficiency. One acre has enough solar energy potential to yield 7.26 megawatt-hours of electricity per day, using technology that exists now. (Each thousand kilowatts is one million watts. A million watts is a megawatt.)

Consider the solar energy potential of one square mile of land. A square mile is 640 acres. One square mile of sunshine has the potential of providing (640 acres x 7.26 megawatt-hours) 4,646 megawatt-hours per day of electricity using existing CSP technology at 30% efficiency.

Ten thousand square miles is a plot of land 100 miles long by 100 miles wide. Multiply 640 acres by 10,000 square miles equals 6,400,000 acres. With a yield of 7.26 megawatt-hours of electricity per day per acre, a CSP system receiving 6,400,000 acres of sunshine would produce about 46,464,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per day.

What does this mean?

The entire State of California uses about 50,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per hour at peak time, and much less during off-peak hours: Sweltering California declares power emergency —Cal ISO expects record demand at 52,336 megawatts.
www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/2004-07-08_SUMMER_DEMAND.PDF size: 68 Kb
www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/2003-01-28_OUTLOOK.PDF size: 170 Kb
www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/peak_demand/2002-07-10_CHART.PDF size: 20 Kb

Suppose that California uses an average of 38,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per hour over a 24-hour period, then 24 hours x 38,000 megawatts = 912,000 megawatt-hours per day, multiplied by 365 = 333,880,000 megawatt-hours per year. This supposed average is too high because in 2005, California actually consumed 288,245,000 megawatt-Hours (MWh) for the entire year: www.energy.ca.gov/electricity/gross_system_power.html

A CSP farm large enough to capture the solar energy radiating on an area of land 100 miles long by 100 miles wide can produce about 50 times more electricity in a day than California consumes in a 24-hour period. For example, 50 x 912,000 = 45,600,000 megawatt-hours per day.

Imagine driving your car 100 miles along one side of the CSP farm, then turn 90 degrees right and drive 100 miles along another side, then turn 90 degrees right again and drive another 100 miles, then make another 90 degree right turn and drive another 100 miles to complete driving a 100 mile square. Inside that area is 10,000 square miles or 6,400,000 acres.

A 10,000 square mile solar energy farm that produces 46,464,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per day would produce 365 x 46,464,000 = 16,956,360,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year or about 17 trillion kilowatt-hours, which is 17,000 terawatt-hours or 17 petawatt-hours.
Tera- (symbol: T) is a prefix in the SI system of units denoting 1012, 1 Trillion or 1,000,000,000,000 (1 million million) therefore, 1 terawatt = 1 Trillion watts.
In physics and mathematics, peta- (symbol: P) is a prefix in the SI (system of units) denoting 1015, 1 Quadrillion or 1,000,000,000,000,000 (one billion million) therefore, 1 petawatt = 1 Quadrillion watts.

The CSP examples above assume 30 percent energy conversion efficiency and 100 percent land use. In a practical application, not all of the land area will be used. This is because of unfavorable terrain and the need for service roads and land for plant facilities. And, the solar collectors must be individually positioned for optimal orientation to the angle of sunlight and given enough space between collectors to prevent a collector from casting a shadow on adjacent collectors; the result is unused space between the collectors. For these reasons, actual electricity production will be less than the numbers shown in the examples. However, the desert regions of the southwestern United States will easily produce 7 hours of productive sunlight per day, and often exceed 1 kilowatt of solar energy per square meter, so in that respect the above calculations are conservative.

All of California’s electricity can be produced from 200 square miles of sunshine; 128,000 acres of desert land. Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam, covers more than 200 square miles. Given an area the size of Lake Mead, for the production of electricity from solar energy, California would be energy independent.

CSP plants seem to use a lot of land, but in reality, they use less land than hydroelectric dams for generating an equivalent electricity output, if the size of the lake behind the dam is considered. The same is true for coal plants. A CSP plant will not use any more land than a coal power plant if the amount of land required for mining and excavation of the coal is taken into consideration.

If the sunshine radiating on the surface of an area 100 miles wide by 100 miles long would provide all of the electricity that America needs, every day, why would Americans hesitate to use it? There are millions of open acres in the deserts of America, where the sun’s energy does nothing more than heat rocks and sand.

In 1942, General Patton established a training area in the deserts of the southwestern United States to train and prepare American soldiers to fight in the deserts of North Africa during World War II. Patton’s original training area was 18,000 square miles, and then expanded to 87,500 square miles (350 miles x 250 miles), an area stretching from Boulder City, Nevada to the Mexican border and from Phoenix, Arizona to Pomona, California. One million soldiers trained in this area using tanks, artillery and aircraft. The desert is very resilient, there is little evidence today of injury to the desert ecosystem.
www.militarymuseum.org/CAMA.html

The point being, the federal government can “borrow” public land from the National and State desert Parks for the purpose of building a national solar energy system. The system would only be needed until fusion energy, or something like it, is developed, then the land would be returned to nature in the care of the public parks service. Time, sand and the desert wind would gradually remove all evidence of technologies brief occupancy. In the meantime, the lizards, turtles, snakes and scorpions would hide and sleep in the shade under the giant mirrors and troughs.

The reason why solar energy has not been development on a large scale is the cost. Not the cost of sunshine, that is free. Private investors resist putting their money into solar energy projects because of the high upfront capital investment required for plant and equipment. The initial investment is what causes the price per kilowatt-hour for electricity from solar energy to be higher than the price of electricity generated from natural gas or coal. The estimated kilowatt-hour rates assigned to solar energy are not based on the cost of electricity generation, they are based on the cost of the investment capital and the requirement to earn a return on investment, or pay back the loan for the investment. Remember, the solar fuel is free.

Solar energy would not be expensive if the cost of the initial capital investment is not factored into the price per kilowatt-hour.

With the obvious enormous public benefit a national solar energy system would provide, why is the government holding back? Should solar energy be a public works project? We have a good example that may help answer that question. Southern California, as it is seen today, would not exist without Hoover Dam and the Colorado River Aqueduct, because without the Colorado River water the current population of Southern California would never have happened. Southern California does not have enough natural water to support the demand of a small fraction of its current population. The federal government funded Hoover Dam and the Colorado River Aqueduct. The economy of Southern California, having grown because of that funding and other public investments, has returned more in tax revenue than was spent building the dam and aqueduct, plus the sale of water and electricity has earned enough to pay the federal government back the amount of the original funding, with interest.

The Following is quoted from the Executive Summary of a report by Sargent & Lundy engineering, titled: Assessment of Parabolic Trough and Power Tower Solar Technology Cost and Performance Forecasts, delivered to the U.S. DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory:

Based on this review, it is S&L’s opinion that CSP technology is a proven technology for energy production, there is a potential market for CSP technology, and that significant cost reductions are achievable assuming reasonable deployment of CSP technologies occurs. S&L independently projected capital and O&M costs, from which the levelized energy costs were derived, based on a conservative approach whereby the technology improvements are limited to current demonstrated or tested improvements and with a relatively low rate of deployment.

The projections for electrical power consumption in the United States and worldwide vary depending on the study, but there will be a significant increase in installed capacity due to increased demand through 2020. Trough and tower solar power plants can compete with technologies that provide bulk power to the electric utility transmission and distribution systems if market entry barriers are overcome:

Market expansion of trough and tower technology will require incentives to reach market acceptance (competitiveness). Both tower and trough technology currently produce electricity that is more expensive than conventional fossil-fueled technology.
Significant cost reductions will be required to reach market acceptance (competitiveness). S&L focused on the potential of cost reductions with the assumption that incentives will occur to support deployment through market expansion.

For the more technically aggressive low-cost case, S&L found the National Laboratories’ “SunLab” methodology and analysis to be credible. The projections by SunLab, developed in conjunction with industry, are considered by S&L to represent a “best-case analysis” in which the technology is optimized and a high deployment rate is achieved. The two sets of estimates, by SunLab and S&L, provide a band within which the costs can be expected to fall. The figure and table below highlight these results, with initial electricity costs in the range of 10 to 12.6 ¢/kWh and eventually achieving costs in the range of 3.5 to 6.2 ¢/kWh. The specific values will depend on total capacity of various technologies deployed and the extent of R&D program success. In the technically aggressive cases for troughs / towers, the S&L analysis found that cost reductions were due to volume production (26%/28%), plant scale-up (20%/48%), and technological advance (54%/24%).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35060.pdf size: 589 Kb
Downloads a 47 page Adobe PDF document.

Solar Energy R&D: Solar cost decreases 10% per year

Solar Energy News:
• Solar at the cost of Coal — Welcome to the Revolution — “How can solar energy–with its reputation for high cost–compete with baseload coal, still the dominant fuel for U.S. electric power generation? … I truly believe it’s doable, … I believe it’s even doable without assigning a cost to carbon. .. Seen in that light, solar at the cost of coal may not be so far-fetched after all.”
• Artificial Photosynthesis – U.S. Department of Energy — “After nearly 3 billion years of evolution, nature can effectively convert sunlight into energy-rich chemical fuels using the abundant feedstocks of water and carbon dioxide. All fuels used today to power vehicles and create electricity, whether from fossil or biomass resources, are ultimately derived from photosynthesis… plants and photosynthetic microbes were not designed to meet human energy needs – much of the energy captured from the sun is necessarily devoted to the life processes of the plants. Imagine the potential energy benefits if we could generate fuels directly from sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water in a manner analogous to the natural system, but without the need to maintain life processes. The impact of replacing fossil fuels with fuels generated directly by sunlight would be immediate and revolutionary.”
• Turning sunlight into liquid fuels — Using the energy of sunlight to produce pure hydrogen and oxygen from water molecules without electrolysis
• Inspired by the photosynthesis performed by plants —MIT Scientists mimic essence of plants’ energy storage system
• Harnessing sunlight on the cheap —MIT student project aims to develop cost-efficient solar power
• Solar farm to rise over 3 square miles in Arizona —Spanish company to build, operate $1 billion plant based on mirrors, turbine
• Solar farms to rise on California rooftops
—Southern California Edison Co. plans to build the nation’s largest solar energy installation—an array of collector cells covering two square miles of rooftops that could power about 162,000 homes.
• The Solar America Initiative
• Silicon Nanocrystals for Superefficient Solar Cells
• Storing Solar Power Efficiently —Thermal-power plants that store heat for cloudy days could solve some of the problems with solar power
• Sunlight used to smelt zinc
• High-schoolers finish solar car race
• One man’s castle runs on hydrogen
• Solar power boom comes with pains
• Honda Entering Solar Cell Market for Homes and Vehicles
• BP, Caltech team up on solar power —Silicon in nanorods could open door to radical breakthrough
• New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology •December 2006
—New Solar Cell Breaks the 40 Percent Efficient Sunlight-to-Electricity Barrier: Boeing [NYSE: BA] today announced that Spectrolab, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary, has achieved a new world record in terrestrial concentrator solar cell efficiency. Using concentrated sunlight, Spectrolab demonstrated the ability of a photovoltaic cell to convert 40.7 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., verified the milestone.
“This solar cell performance is the highest efficiency level any photovoltaic device has ever achieved,” said Dr. David Lillington, president of Spectrolab. “The terrestrial cell we have developed uses the same technology base as our space-based cells. So, once qualified, they can be manufactured in very high volumes with minimal impact to production flow.”
High efficiency multijunction cells have a significant advantage over conventional silicon cells in concentrator systems because fewer solar cells are required to achieve the same power output. This technology will continue to dramatically reduce the cost of generating electricity from solar energy as well as the cost of materials used in high-power space satellites and terrestrial applications.
“These results are particularly encouraging since they were achieved using a new class of metamorphic semiconductor materials, allowing much greater freedom in multijunction cell design for optimal conversion of the solar spectrum,” said Dr. Richard R. King, principal investigator of the high efficiency solar cell research and development effort. “The excellent performance of these materials hints at still higher efficiency in future solar cells.”
Spectrolab high-efficiency multijunction solar concentrator cells
—Boeing Spectrolab

• Cheap, Superefficient Solar —Solar-power modules that concentrate the power of the sun are becoming more viable.
• Cheaper, More Efficient photonic crystals —A new type of material could allow solar cells to harvest far more light.
• Solar Power at Half the Cost —A new roof-mounted system that concentrates sunlight could cut the price of photovoltaics.
• Supplying the World’s Energy Needs with Light and Water —A new roof-mounted system that concentrates sunlight could cut the price of photovoltaics. A leading chemist says that a better understanding of photosynthesis could lead to cheap ways to store solar energy as chemical fuel.

Solar Energy Storage:
Nanowire battery can hold 10 times the charge of existing lithium-ion battery December 18, 2007 “Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. The new technology, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours.”
Interview with Dr. Cui, Inventor of Silicon Nanowire Lithium-ion Battery Breakthrough

High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Transmission:
GE HVDC technology
ABB HVDC technology
High-Voltage Transmission Lines
Superconducting Transmission Lines
Nanotechnology leads to discovery of super superconductors

High-Voltage Composite Electricity Transmission Lines:
Composite Technology Corporation
Composite-Reinforced Aluminum Conductor (CRAC)
CRAC-TelePower: Electricity and Data over the same line
Produced by the California Energy Commission
The 44 page report is a 238 KB Adobe PDF document.

Reference links:
Power from the sun
CSP – How it Works
Concentrating Solar Power
Frequently Asked Questions
Boeing Spectrolab Solar Cells
The Solar Tres power tower plant
Solar Tres Project – solarpaces.org
Thermal solar power tower – history
Solar Radiation Resource Information
The National Solar Thermal Test Facility
TroughNet – Parabolic Trough Solar Power
Thermal Storage Research and Development
The El Paso Salinity Gradient Solar Pond (SGSP)
Parabolic Trough Power Plant System Technology
Solar Two Demonstrates Clean Power for the Future
Advantages of Using Molten Salt for thermal storage
Frequently Asked Questions about Photovoltaics (PV)
Download SunLab Solar Energy Technology White Papers
Report to Congress: 1,000 megawatts of Solar power by 2006 size: 956 Kb
U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies program
NREL and Research Partners Work to Trim Solar Electricity Costs
Research and Development Advances in Concentrating Solar Power
Lunar Solar Power System by Professor of Physics David Criswell
Assessment of Parabolic Trough and Power Tower Solar Technology Cost and Performance size: 589 Kb
The Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSES) at the Australian National University (ANU)

FRESNEL LENS:
Green Power Science
When placed in the sun, a fresnel lens will act as a giant magnifying glass and concentrate light to a very small point. Most large fresnel lenses will concentrate several square feet of sunlight to less than an inch resulting in a hot spot over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. This will cause wood to instantly catch on fire or zinc and copper metal to melt in a few seconds or even burn and vaporize. We have boiled 12 oz. of water in a dark glass bottle in 90 seconds and burned a hole in a stainless steel bowl.. One gallon of water was boiled in 30 minutes.